“Let us go early to the vineyards,” she tells him (Song 7:12). There is no room for laziness in a life of obedience. There is ceaseless activity in the realm of the King of kings. “My Father is always at his work, and I, too, am working,” the Lord told his disciples. If the angels are given charge over his hidden ones, “to guard them in their way,” they have a lot to do. There is “creaturely activity” that hinders God, and a “passivity” that is not of God, a passivity that is only another name for laziness. When the Lord is permitted to still the “fuss” and activity of the creature, and to bring the believer into restful cooperation, he is able to work through them — his instrument — mightily (Galatians 2:8) — the believer adding all diligence. This includes even “getting up early,” as the Master did, to take care of the vineyards — but first of all, by intercession within the veil!

Many years ago, I learned a principal from a brother who was instrumental in my coming to faith. He showed me, Micah6:8 say, “The Lord has shown you what is good and what He requires of you: To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Now, both of us worked for the same employer as district managers in the circulation department or a Newspaper. Many of the other managers would take long lunches, would go out and do personal things. You see, as long as our districts were running well, and he was not getting complaints from the customers, he did not notice or even care what we did.t we did.

But after this brother showed me Micah 6:8, he pointed out that a servant of God always worked honestly and “justly.” They were faithful employees; if they were paid for eight hours, they worked eight hours. They did not take long lunches, do personal things on company time. They were faithful employees. I noticed that he would volunteer to do other jobs in the department, learn other tasks so he could keep busy. But not just at work, he demonstrated that in every area of our life, we were to exemplify the King we were serving.